Every Time I Die, The Chariot, and Kills and Thrills at The Loft

I was stoked beyond belief when I saw that Every Time I Die was coming to Madison. A little surprised this show was at the Loft, but super excited regardless. They have been arguably my favorite ‘heavy’ band for the past several years, and since I skipped their set at Warped Tour when I went, I knew this would be a can’t-miss show for me. The rest of the lineup was sick as well, The Chariot has always been known for insane live performances and Letlive is always a band I wanted to see live because they remind me so much of an old favorite in Finch (however, Letlive had to drop off this tour due to personal reasons).

The last time I went to The Loft was for an Amber Pacific, Farewell, Houston Calls, Fight Fair show, where there was easily less than 100 people there. The scene was much different this time around, as there was a massive line forming outside the building when I got there. It wasn’t until around 7:00 that we were able to get inside – I guess that’s just due to there only being 3 bands on the bill. I checked out all the band’s merch for a few minutes before the show. I didn’t plan on buying anything, but there was a huge variety of stuff, more than I expected.

Kills and Thrills eventually took the stage first. I didn’t really know what to expect from them but was pleasantly surprised. They have that New York hardcore sound down perfectly with their own melodic twist to it. Overall they reminded me of a combination of Terror or Madball mixed with Comeback Kid. My favorite part of their set was when they had a guest vocalist (sorry, no idea who) come onstage for a cover of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades”. That one really got the crowd going.

Shortly after, The Chariot began setting up their gear. A brief “Cha-Ri-Ot!” chant started and it was clear there were a lot of people there for this band. From the opening seconds of “Evan Perks” all the way through the end of their last song, they put on one of the most memorable performances I have EVER seen. I’ve never seen a band so high-octane and full of raw energy for 100% of their set. If only every band out there had half the passion The Chariot does in their live shows and music. I mean, within the first 10 seconds of the opener, both the singer and one of the guitarists were crowdsurfing. They seemingly had at least one member in the audience somewhere in every song.

Lastly came the moment everyone was waiting for, Every Time I Die. No fancy intro or anything… just vocalist Keith Buckley coming out and immediately screaming out the beginning to “Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space”. To sum up these guys’ performance in a word, it would just simply be ‘awesome’. They were much tighter live than I thought they’d be considering a lot of their songs have a lot of technical parts in them as well as some weird time signatures. They blasted through an array of music from their wide catalogue, playing all fan favorites with a heavy does their new album, “Ex-Lives”. All in all, it was an excellent set, despite seeming a bit too short.

This was definitely worth the price I paid, even though Letlive wasn’t able to be a part of it. With three different bands doing different styles of hardcore, this show would please any fan of the genre. SO GO.